You couldn’t be more wrong about Americans in your article or in your whole understating of our psychology. Most Americans do not take vacations because they can’t afford to do it.
I strongly suggest you embark on a quest to discover real America. The one where people are paid hourly, receive 10 days vacation per year at the most, live hours away from suburbs and are afraid each and everyday of losing their jobs at any time for any reason under the “Right to Work Laws”
You should move into a trailer park home in Alabama or Georgia and discover the backbone of America’s Wall Mart style living.
First of all, Europeans enjoy 14 months of pay per year to have great summer and Christmas vacations. In addition, they receive by law a well deserved vacation. This encourages people to relax.
Americans, on the other hand, do not receive but 10 days vacation. These 10 days usually are spent on trips to the doctor or other musts that happened throughout the year. Eventually, there might be 3 or 4 days left that do not allow your average American to really do anything interesting. On the other hand, since the vast majority of Americans have what in Europe in not even considered “true employment” that is, temporary contracts or a job that could end the same day the employer decides to terminate it, many Americans are afraid to take a vacation in case that might lead to their employment being terminated.
Once on vacation, those of us who can, and I consider myself very fortunate as I have 28 days per year, the thought of returning to the office to find thousands upon thousands of e-mails takes away all of the fun. In America, when one goes on vacation, there is nobody reassigned to help with the incoming work so you have no other alternative but to read e-mails as you walk through the Coliseum or window shop around the Spanish Steps while your wife stares at you in disappointment.
American’s do not have vacation because they feel it is morally wrong but because we do not enjoy the same rights as European’s do. It is easy and stupid to blame it on the puritans and continue to drink the same cool aid about American freedom and moral greatness. The truth is much simpler: we lack the rights to take vacations and our government only cares for the corporations that employ us.

Many times as a middle manager in an "American" company, while visiting my co-workers in Germany we'd discuss the differences in our lifestyles. I rarely took vacations, usually not more than one week at a time. While they enjoyed a true 6 weeks off, I was expected to check my phone mail and email daily while on vacation. On one occasion, while my wife and children hiked without me to the lake, I was stuck in a teleconference with Germany working to resolve a non critical problem.

In my entire career of 32 years I took just one long overseas vacation of 1 month and was almost fired for doing that.

Most Americans do not take vacations for two reasons: Either they are in constant fear of losing their jobs or they have little money left after paying or needing to save outrageous amounts for healthcare, children's college funds, retirement, and housing.

I used to tell my German friends, "I thought we won the war." Guess not.

And after 32 years, my company moved most of the jobs from America to Asia and fired 36,000 employees in the USA including me.

To an extent I would agree with Lexington. As a Canadian working for a European company, I get 25 days off work per year (5 weeks) and every year I use all 25 days. I typically take 15-20 days off at a time to travel to some part of the world with the rest spent at Christmas.

I once had a discussion with an American co-worker on this topic and he essentially said that when he worked in the US, he didn't take more than 2 weeks at a time as he felt that if he took any more time off that this, his 'relative worth' to the company would be called into question (i.e. they would wonder if they should just replace him if he wanted more than 2 weeks off in a year).

From my point of view, as a 20 something Gen Y member of the workforce, I’d think that I and other working Gen Yers are much more likely to take advantage of their full allotment of holidays. Saying that, your age and relative place in life (i.e. married / have children) would to an extent dictate what type of holiday you took (and how often).

I know this surely sounds pathetic, but as an American professional, when I'm on vacation, I have plenty of reason to worry about colleagues who are also "competitors" stealing my "turf" if I don't keep an eye on things. Thus I will take a vacation, but tend to check my e-mail and intervene to make sure things keep going the "right way". That way I can at least enjoy some nice scenery and fun experiences. And yes, I do like road-trips. It's nice to see the land and meet the people between point A and point B, and often helps you appreciate your destination all the more.

I'm a contract worker in the transportation industry. The amount of time that I spend on vacation each year is measure in months, but it's all under the guise of 'unemployment'. This is just one of countless distortions that must exist in the vacation statistics.

In my opinion this article is full of stereotypes ; Europeans would be lazy and Americans hard workers. Also not everybody is an important lawyer from wall street and I suppose that one from London would do the same. I would like to compare the average American vs the average European taking into account sick days and also time spent at work... I think that we are only human and we still need to rest a bit; therefore, even if official numbers show 13 days holidays, what is behind it?

My fellow Americans...
Lexington is just having some fun. It's something we can do, too, even if we don't take vacations.
I'm a card carrying member of the self-flagellating group he describes, and I hooted and laughed the entire way through. My crazy vacationless years have taught me this at least: leisure time is optional, but heaven help us if we can't laugh at ourselves!

Spot on analysis of American lifestyle. Yes, many Americans do take vacations but not as long as Europeans and when we do they are generally 'work' filled w/ bustling around looking at historical sites, or active play vacations at amusement parks or trips to maintain personal contact with relatives in other states.

Work is built into the American fiber and it shows. We didn't get to the be the #1 economy in the world just due to the accident of our location or natural resources. Its a culture of work that has produced the strength of our economy.

A lot of these responses sound like they come from extremely insecure individuals. Did Lexington touch a nerve? I thought this article was quite funny. The puritan roots theory is probably a stretch, but it makes for interesting discussion.

And of course the article deals with stereotypes. No, Lexington is not talking about YOUR specific vacation. We know there are plenty of people in the US who do take long vacations. You don't have to point out that you do! Likewise there are plenty of people in France (well, maybe not that many) who do not. But in general, the vacation stereotypes are there for a reason, and the numbers Lexington provided do tell a lot of the story. 2 weeks off per year is how much most US professionals take and it's much less than Europe. Of course this isn't news, but it's interesting.

According to wikipedia, about 21,000 Puritans in total immigrated to what is now the United States. Yet you attribute their work ethic to the entire population. Just one of the many silly stereotypes here. If you want to identify a group of immigrants who have had a pervasive effect on us, try the Germans. After all, they are still the largest immigrant group in this country.

This article is in fact rife with stereotypes. I am an American. I spent two weeks of August on the beach in the Valencia region of Spain, and did precious little other than sit on the beach or on the terrace and stare at the sea and the mountains. I didn't call work once.